Almost Instadeath

[9975]

Salinity 1.023, nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, temp 77

350g, 125g sump with 60g fill. 6 month old system. I keep some bags of carbon in sump. I use RO water

9 anthia, blue throat trigger, 2 mocha clowns. All fish quarantined through TSM and were beautiful and ate great!

Wife fed at 1030 AM and everyone was fine, she text me at 330 PM saying they are all acting lethargic. She remembered me saying I'd like the salinity up a little so she put 2 cups of salt in the sump and put some RO water in to top sump off....dont ask me why....she thought she was helping out cuz that may be the issue.

I get home at 5 PM. Everything but clowns were hiding. Found most of them and all fish were breathing hard. Within an hour most anthia were dead.

I have a 20 g with a smaller melanurus and leopard in QT. I snagged the clowns and trigger and put in QT.

Some things that seem odd to me....tank has some diatoms but not too bad. Only a handful of pencil eraser size green algae spots on the rocks, otherwise the rock is still white where the diatoms/little bit of hair algae is. It seems like the crabs and snails are okay. Water still looks crystal clear

I saw one fish go to top of water for what seemed like air so I cranked up the return pump some praying it would help some but it was a hopeless try.

Only other thing I thought would be an algae bloom but the water looked clear with no signs of fog. Any help would be great as I'm seriously upset about all of this and the wife is in tears thinking she did it.

Thanks everyone!!

 

[Hydrored]

Well, start with telling your wife it’s ok, I have been through this when my wife tripped a breaker while using a steam cleaner and thought it was no big deal the tank was off until I got home. Nothing was sprayed around the tank for cleaners or bug killer? Have you checked for any voltage?

 

[9975]

No sprays as wife is allergic to everything lol. Didnt check voltage

 

[Bam327]

Were her hands in the tank? If so any possible contamination there?

 

[9975]

Voltage for the tank was only 1.0 volts so good there. She said her hands weren't in the water and she would own up to it....cry a lot but own up to it

 

[9975]

We dont have candle or diffusers in the house. No smoking. I had a lively 72g a decade ago and have stalked this forum for the last 1 1/2 years preparing for this build. I've been pretty meticulous with everything but it seems that I've missed something

 

[schuby]

Is the salinity 1.023 now or was it 1.023 before the 2 cups of salt?

 

[9975]

Before

 

[Shufflepig]

Are you sure it was salt she put in the sump and not something else she thought was salt?

 

[9975]

Absolutely positive it was salt

 

[Shufflepig]

Are the clowns and the trigger doing ok in the 20gal?

 

[schuby]

What is the salinity now?

 

[9975]

Clowns are still small and trigger is about 3". Trigger and smallest clown on on the bottom breathing pretty good. Think the trigger is stressed

 

[9975]

Still 1.023

 

[Aquavaj]

Was the cup used for anything else?

 

[9975]

No I keep fish stuff down by the sump. Also, the fish were "acting funny" before she put salt in. That was one of my first questions

 

[JumboShrimp]

This is sad, but intriguing. So far I suppose no one has stumbled upon the 'magic question.'

 

[robbyg]

My question is do you have young kids in the house?
The only thing I can think of is some kind of toxic substance. With 475 Gal of total water it would have to be fairly concentrated to cause this kind of damage this quickly. I suggest you dump that fish food in the garbage just in case it somehow got contaminated.

 

[9975]

Nope on the kids. The 16 year old wasnt home and the 18 sleeps all day lol. I thought toxic as well but cant fathom what it would be as nothing can get near the tank

 

[robbyg]

Nope on the kids. The 16 year old wasnt home and the 18 sleeps all day lol. I thought toxic as well but cant fathom what it would be as nothing can get near the tank

What kind of food did she feed them?